


A Red Horse he rides (Let slip the dogs of War)

by DarkShadeless



Series: Magnolia Drive [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: A little, Feelings, Gen, Halloween story, adorable Ghost pokemon up to no good, annoying neighbours being annoying, small town drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 19:47:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20179738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkShadeless/pseuds/DarkShadeless
Summary: The Neighborhood Association has decided to take matters into their own hands. They might be underestimating their opposition.





	A Red Horse he rides (Let slip the dogs of War)

"You will what?" Annie can't quite banish the tremor from her voice. At her feet Mimi presses against her calf and makes a worried sound.

Nancy doesn't even glance down. Her perfectly contoured mouth is drawn into a frown that makes her more ugly than make-up can hide in Annie's personal opinion. "We're going to give your shabby little street a makeover. Long overdue, don’t you think?" She pushes the paper she has been pressing at her into her hands more resolutely. '_Exception for Neighborhood Renovation'_ is all Annie can read from this angle. "You should thank us, dear."

* * *

Thank them. _Thank _them!

Annie storms up Magnolia drive without a care for where she's going past 'home', a distressed Mimi swishing along in her wake. After the first turn she stops long enough to scoop her baby up. "Sorry, sweety. Sorry…"

Mimi cuddles into her and chirrs, upset but still trying to soothe her. Her cute little darling.

Annie swallows heavily. "Let's go home."

It's a wonder they don’t get lost. She can't claim she sees where she's going. Yes, that might be a bit inconvenient, the lanterns being broken, and it _is _a bit dark but- if she weren't crying she’d see just fine! And she gets home anyway! Really, what are people even complaining about! The road is _right there._

(The road might or might not have to iron out a few curves for Annie to manage the way up the hill tonight, actually, but if that is so she certainly doesn't notice.)

The clouds overhead are mirroring her mood perfectly. It's probably going to rain soon.

Kyu is waiting at the garden door, like a lost little Mareep. She had to leave it at home again, all alone… it's still not ready to go into town, poor thing. Probably would have chewed up Nancy's stupid pumps.

On second thought maybe Annie should have taken it along.

She pats it on the head in passing, too lost in her feelings for a better greeting. By the time she drops onto the sofa, the manic energy that has driven her the whole way runs out.

Annie hugs Mimi close and blinks tears out of her eyes. That' a lost cause as soon as her baby snuggles closer. Kyu climbing the sofa and leaning into her side just compounds the whole thing. Distraught, Annie buries her face in Mimi's costume and sobs.

Why are people so _stupid_? Her street is the prettiest place she has ever lived and they're going to take that away from her. And for what?

Because Nancy Stuck-Up Portman wants to have neat, nicely trimmed lawns everywhere, whether it's her business or not.

* * *

When it's quiet, after mama falls asleep, Kyu slides away to the kitchen without a sound. There, on the table, mama put the paper she came home with. It has to stretch real far, farther than the costume goes, to reach. That's okay. Nobody is there to see.

The paper is boring, black and white with precise lines drawn on it. Nothing like the picture books mama reads to them. '_Exception for Neighborhood Renovation – Bringing beauty back to Magnolia Drive!' _it says.

Kyu can’t quite read well enough to figure out what that means but it doesn't like the paper. On principle. And because it feels kind of awful. All the emotions sticking to it are scrunched up and terrible.

It’s not as careful as it maybe should be when it drags the thing across the floor to the living room.

"Kyu?"

"_Mi._"

Mimi gives it a _look _from where it is trapped, quite willingly, in mama's hug. It's not a nice look.

They've worked a long time to make mama's garden look like all the movies from the places she likes best. Kyu hasn't been here for all of it but for enough. That’s how it found mama’s garden in the first place, because it was so _nice_.

Mimi has shared very disgruntled photo book sessions with it, of what it _used _to be like. _Sunny_ and _grassy _and… boring. Like a real Pikachu. _Boring_. _Ugly_.

(On that note: There used to be a little nest of Pikachu somewhere around here, busy making adorable little Pichu. Well. _Not anymore_. They might still be doing that but not in Annie's backyard, they're not.)

It was _hard _to get all the pokemon to come live here they needed to and it was _so hard _to make them do what they wanted, like leave visitors alone and not eat the pumpkins and- They had to bully a lot of pokemon. Mimi has the remains of a costume hidden away somewhere with Gengar-sized scratch marks.

(That Gengar regretted its life choices. It regretted them a lot and it didn't even have a mom to crawl home to to kiss it better and spray it with healing potions. Mimi did, so _there_.)

So much work... but it's almost perfect now! They were _so close _to getting the Litwick to nest in the lanterns too!

And now people are trying to ruin _everything_. People are making mama _sad_.

'People' have another thing coming if they think Mimi and Kyu will put up with _any_ of that.

**Author's Note:**

> ... they are little angels, I swear. Really.


End file.
